Study of Malaysian military hypertensives--therapy compliance.

A random sample of 102 hypertensives out of a total of 347 in the Malaysian Armed Forces were studied with regard to patient education, knowledge of hypertensz'on and therapy compliance. It was found that for 53 percent, patient education was unsatisfactory and as a result 67 percent had inadequate knowledge of hypertensz·on. Adherance to therapy drug intake, wezght reduction and cessation of smoking was poor (more than 59 percent, 96 percent and 70 percent failure respectz'vely). There was no szgnifi'cant difference between asymptomatz'cally and symptomatz'cally detected hypertenszves.